Sign the Petition to

Surface disposal of water produced by oil and gas drilling should be forbidden. Please change the rule that allows waste water from fracking to be used for purposes of “agricultural or wildlife propagation." Frackers shouldn't be allowed to discharge their waste water where it will be drunk by farm animals.

How this will help

Please sign the petition asking the EPA stop the frackers from discharging their waste water where it will be drunk by farm animals.

Millions of gallons of water laced with toxic chemicals from oil and gas
drilling rigs are pumped for consumption by wildlife and livestock with
the formal approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA).

The EPA has just posted proposed new water discharge permits for the nearly dozen oil fields on or abutting the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.

"Under the less than watchful eye of the EPA, fracking flowback is
dumped into rivers, lakes and reservoirs," stated PEER Executive
Director Jeff Ruch.
"Gushers of putrid, grayish water encrusted with chemical crystals flood through Wind River into nearby streams."

In the last decade, fracking fluids often consisting of powerfully
toxic chemicals have been included in this surface discharge. The exact
mixture used by individual operators is treated as a trade secret. But
one recent analysis identified 632 chemicals now used in shale-gas
production. More than 75 percent of them affect the respiratory and
gastrointestinal systems; 40-50 percent impact the kidneys and the
nervous, immune and cardiovascular systems; 37 percent act on the
hormone system; and 25 percent are linked with cancer or mutations.

"Amid all the controversy on this topic, there is one point of
agreement: Drinking fracking fluids is not a good idea," added Ruch,
pointing to cases where cattle drinking creek water contaminated with
fracking fluids died or failed to produce calves the following year.
"The more than 30-year old 'produced water' exception
was intended for naturally occurring fluids and muds from within the
geologic formations, not this new generation of powerful chemicals
introduced downhole."